ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and UNESCO have agreed to work out for establishment of PAK-UNESCO Joint Centre of Excellence in Teachers Training and STEAM Learning at Islamabad.
According to details, the decision was taken during a bilateral meeting between Education Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain and Ms Stefania Giannini, Assistant Director General for Education UNESCO held at Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
The meeting was held on the sidelines of II World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education, said a press release yesterday.
Rana Tanveer Hussain informed about Pakistan’s resolute commitment to overcome the major challenges in education sector and mainly in the areas of Out of School Children, Girls Education, urgent actions required to mitigate learning losses, Quality of Education, introducing and embedding Skills learning in mainstream Education.
He also emphasized on the damage caused by the recent unprecedented floods with recovery cost in education sector around USD918 million.
Rana Tanveer urged that various interventions were made in partnership with UNESCO, however, the focus shall be on major challenges with one or two high impact targeted interventions instead of low impact scattered collaborations in different areas.
The minister ensured that Pakistan will make all out efforts to ensure inclusive and equitable and quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities as in light of SDG-4 as well as commitments made in Bangkok declaration and recently held Transforming Education Summit at UN HQs.
While considering the importance of teachers’ training and STEAM education, he proposed for Pak-UNESCO Joint Centre of Excellence (CoE) in teachers training and STEAM learning at Islamabad, which will be established with the support of UNESCO. The said Centre will mainly focus of early childhood & primary education.
Ms Stefania Giannini informed that UNESCO has been doing its best to support Pakistan’s education sector along with its other partners (UNICEF, WFP, WHO etc) in emergencies. She appreciated Pakistan’s commitment to address the educational challenges faced by the country.
She also assured for mobilizing the global partners to provide all possible assistance to Pakistan’s education sector.
Ms Stefania Giannini welcomed the proposal of Pakistan’s Education Minister for establishment of Pak-UNESCO Joint Centre of Excellence.
It was also agreed that UNESCO will enhance its efforts for capacity building of the officials of Pakistan National Commission for UNESCO (PNCU), whereas Pakistan’s Education Ministry will ensure adequate workforce at PNCU.
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